i'm terrell brown. while revelers ring in the new year, the senate is also celebrating. just a few hours ago it overwhelmingly passed a bill to avert the fiscal cliff. now president obama is calling on the house to pass the bill without delay. the bill stops most of the tax hikes and spending cuts that were to kick in at midnight. tara mergener is in washington with more this morning. tara, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, terrell. well, a deal is now on the books to avert some of the impact of the fiscal cliff which technically we have gone over. now it is up to the house. in the early morning hours of new year's day, the senate began voting on a bill to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. >> the bill as amended is passed. >> reporter: the senate voted 89-8 to avoid tax hikes for 99% of all americans. >> this shouldn't be the model for how we do things around here. but i think we can say we've done some good for the country. >> r if the bill eventually becomes law, the bush era tax cuts will be permanently extended for everyone making less than $400,000 a y